To homeschool.. not to homeschool?

I have three little ones under the age of five and am leaning towards home schooling. Does anyone have any thoughts on home schooling? When they get old enough, I will definitely give them the chance to attend regular school. As of right now, my two older kids (4 and 3) are enrolled in gymnastics classes, and show wonderful social skills. It's just.. where we live, in western PA, the schools aren't so great. The local public school won't even teach evolution, because of the biblical contradictions. I want my children to have an open mind, to realize that there is more to life than following the crowd. Am I making the right decision here? Please give me your advice.

 

I'm glad I went to school because I learned all about social situations, and how to dominate them.

When I grew up and began to see the world the way it is . . I dropped out and never went back.

School is so fucked up in America.
These are my opinions . .
I take this topic seriously.

 

I would send him to school. Even though they are socially active, in the end, they'll only be getting your "opinion" on subjects. While your opinion is extremely valuable, I think it's important for a child to interact with others, to hear different sides, to learn skills, to interact with others, etc etc etc etc ...

 

Granted, I never did attend school in the states. I've been hearing many stories though . .. Doesn't sound so fun .

 

if you are serious about giving them all a good education on your own, and have the money to do so then go right ahead. id say let them go to highschool though if they want to in the future.

 

if i could go back in time and retake my schooling over .. i would definately homeschool myself... i'm thinking abou when i have kids of homeschooling them as well

Schools these days are VERY VERY negative
cruel
nasty
unfair
judgemental
EVERY kid gets picked on
no choice in the matter
your not cool if...
This "group this this group that"
The in crowd the out crowd
I will tell you, i was in the out crowd at 15 because i never had a baby wasn't on welfare or mothers allowance didn't party have sex and never touched cigs or drugs. People spat at me , stole my homework, and kicked me around. Thats what people want to send their kids to.

 

I homeschool my three kids who are 16, almost 9, and just turned 7. They have all been to public school and we decided that this was the best thing for us.

Now and then I think about their public school experiences and how things would be different now if they had continued there. I can't come up with any really substantial positive reasons to have kept making them go. Unfortunately, I was making them go. They didn't like it so much. They were bored and there were a lot of issues that were a direct contradiction to our values.

We are very active socially and academically, though we don't have any particular curriculum that we follow. We tend to lean toward unschooling which gives us the freedom to explore whatever we wish. All of us pick up and retain a lot more that way.

I won't lie, sometimes it is exhausting. I'm single and keeping up with three kids and a business is not for the faint of heart. I drink a lot of coffee.

I find it terribly annoying when people give me a hard time about homeschooling and then turn around and tell me what wonderful, smart kids I have. Whatever.

Over the weekend I was out of town and happened to be watching tv in the hotel. I caught this show called The Principal's Office on that reality tv channel. It further cemented why I'm not sending them to ps.

It's sometimes a tough decision to make, and it is easier in some states than others. It takes research and trial and error to find out what will work for you and your kids but it can be a tremendously interesting and fun journey. Good luck!

 

My kids are 5 and 2 and we are unschooling. I've been researching it for almost 2 years now and I feel that is what best fits with what I believe in. I feel that my children should have the choice in how they learn and what they learn about and not have all of the pressure that school puts on them at such a young age. They will have to deal with plenty of pressure later on as adults. I also don't want the school system shaping my children. I'm not raising sheep... I don't want them to be taught that they need to conform in order to be accepted into society.

Here are some very interesting reads about unschooling...

Websites:
http://www.joyfullyrejoycing.com/
http://sandradodd.com/unschooling
http://www.unschooling.com/
http://familyrun.ning.com/
http://www.naturalchild.org/
http://www.besthomeschooling.org/

Books:
The Unprocessed Child: Living Without School by Valerie Fitzenreiter
Teach Your Own: The John Holt Book of Homeschooling by John Holt
(and any othe book by John Holt)
Summerhill School: A New View of Childhood by A. S. Neill


Good luck!!!! And the best advise I can give you is to surround yourself with positive people.

 

I wish that I'd started with my kids so young and by unschooling! I think they would have come so much further.

As it is, we love homeschooling. Since they once attended a very "good" public school that had TONS of problems as all schools do, they are THRILLED to be homeschooling.

 

I’m homeschooling my DD. We enjoy it. DD can learn what she wants and time is also very flexible. The most important thing is make plan adequately and persevere in it. Besides, find some assistant tool helping you to find out where you have been and weather you are teaching the right thing. I recommend beestar. My DD has been using it. It looks great. Anyway, good luck!
Lisa

 

I think that homeschooling is a two-way street. It screwed my younger brother up by stunting his social skills. He's in public school right now, and he's finally learning how to talk to people.

On the other hand, if the kids are involved in extracurricular activites, then homeschooling is usually better than regular school.

It all depends on the child, but ages 3 and 4 might be a bit early to tell for sure. Honestly, I would recommend enrolling them for a year or two, and then going for homeschooling.

 

While I don't have any children of my own I do kind of understand where you're coming from, OP. I live in a small southern town whose education system is a complete failure. I've even thought of moving when I have children so that I won't have to put them in the schools around here. Most don't graduate. Those that do, usually do not go on to college and their education is probably still at the eighth grade level. Also there is the fact that most of this town is religious and closeminded. I don't want my child getting the ideals and beliefs that are taught around here. I think that I will homeschool my children for these reasons. If at some point they tell me that they want to go to school, then things may change. I wish that I had been homeschooled, at least for middle school. I was teased mercilessly. It made school horrible for me. Kids can't learn where they feel threatened. People say that you need school to learn to socialize, but all school taught me was to stay away from people. Don't venture outside of your family or you will get hurt. I wouldn't call that good socialization. I'm also the type of person that does well learning by just taking a book and reading it, being on my own. That probably also has to do with my school experience. I was terrified of doing something wrong in class and being made fun of, so I just didn't do crap. I was always ahead of my class, but that didn't ease my fear. I say listen to your kids. They know how they learn best and they know if what is going on isn't working for them.

 

Amen, Tisha MC.

Look at your local young people. Around here, none of the high school graduates can read, and they brag about that. Maybe a tenth of them go to the community college. The town that the college is in is considered out-of-district! By age 24 (my age), most of the girls are mothers of at least two and have been arrested at least once. The poverty is sky-high, but the teenaged girls are making serious dough from the child support payments their aged twenty-something "baby-daddies" give them.

We're not staying here, but yeah. My offspring will NOT be educated in this society.

 

Well, my friends went to public schools. I had private tutors.

 

The only thing that really matters is that you care about them. As long as you've got that in check, it's pretty hard to go wrong, IMO.

 

No point me home schooling, I'm not educated enough and I got a feeling neither are a large portion of parents who do homeschool. yeah that's right I know you giving gobbies behind the locker room instead of learning your maths, ain't fooling me.

 

I was homeschooled until 9th grade. Then I went to public high school .
I had no problem with socialization or classes. If anything it was much easier and more laid back then homeschooling with my mom!
The only difficulty I had was getting dressed and putting shoes on every morning. I still think better sitting on the floor in my underwear lol

 

Good to know, Runner! Ha ha!

Never homeschooled myself. Three high schools in 2 states (ME and CT) didn't help, however.

 

If i had it my way i would have gone to a school that had an early learning centre.
However, it was just as good going through a mainstream school having my old man there as principal.